An electric vehicle or a hybrid electric vehicle generally includes a motor and an inverter between a battery and wheels in order to drive the wheels by electric power accumulated in the battery.
The electric power accumulated in the battery is converted by the inverter of an inverter device etc. and is supplied to the motor and rotates the motor, and rotation of the motor is transmitted to the wheels and drives the wheels.
Conventionally, the inverter and the motor were mounted in separate places of the vehicle and a terminal of the inverter was connected to a terminal of the motor using a wire harness.
On the other hand, a structure of integrating an inverter with a motor for the purpose of cost reduction and miniaturization of an electric driving system from a battery to wheels has been proposed recently (Patent Reference 1 or 2).
<Invention Described in Patent Reference 1 or 2>
FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an invention of integrating an inverter with a motor described in Patent Reference 1 or 2, and a power receiving box 100C is placed on a motor case 100 for accommodating a three-phase AC motor (an induction motor or a synchronous machine), and motor input terminals 100T for receiving three-phase AC electric power are attached to the power receiving box 100C and on the other hand, inverter output terminals 200T are attached to an inverter case 200 of the inverter for receiving a DC from a DC power source placed on the other part of a vehicle and converting the DC into an three-phase AC. Then, connecting conductors L are used for supplying the three-phase AC electric power of the inverter from the inverter output terminals 200T to the motor input terminals 100T of the power receiving box 100C.
<Merit of Invention Described in Patent Reference 1 or 2>
A structure shown in FIG. 4 is assembled by separately assembling the motor case 100 and the inverter case 200 and then installing the inverter case 200 in the vicinity of the motor case 100 and also electrically connecting the motor input terminals 100T to the inverter output terminals 200T by the connecting conductors L. Thus, the inverter case 200 and the motor case 100 have the structure which is assembled and manufactured as separate modules and is electrically connected by the connecting conductors L at the time of integration, so that manufacture is easy and cost can be reduced.
<Demerit of Invention Described in Patent Reference 1 or 2>
However, in such a configuration, a vibration phase difference between the inverter and the motor by vibration of the motor itself or vibration of a vehicle body at the time of driving is applied to a connector and the connector may be damaged. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a connector capable of withstanding such vibration.
Then, a connector described in Patent Reference 3 is disclosed as the connector capable of withstanding such vibration.